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Anthropic called for the creation of a coordinated mechanism that would allow leading AI developers and governments to collectively slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development, warning that the technology is advancing toward the ability to build and improve itself without human involvement.
The call came in a lengthy blog post authored by Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Marina Favaro, leader of the Anthropic Institute, the company's research arm. The post argued that AI systems are already meaningfully accelerating AI development and that the industry may be approaching a point where those systems can design their own successors — a phenomenon the authors call "full recursive self-improvement."
"We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology," the company said.
Appearing on CNN Thursday night, Clark described the current moment as a car with only a gas pedal. "When I look down at the car we're driving, all I have is a gas pedal. I don't have a brake pedal, and surely at some point in the future we might want that option," he told CNN.
